New mystery novels revolve around food

What's cooking in new mysteries?

How about lobster bisque and zucchini crepes? And apples in jackets, and ginger carrot soup.

While readers try to figure out who "done" it, two new mystery novels also tell them how to do it, with recipes for dishes that figure into their plots.

The books, "The Secret Ingredient Murders" and "The Crepes of Wrath," are among the latest hardcover novels of mystery and suspense, which include books by Dean Koontz, Annette Meyers, Thomas Perry and Ed Gorman.

"The Secret Ingredient Murders"

(Delacorte)

By Nancy Pickard

This latest Eugenia Potter adventure finds her in coastal Rhode Island, where she is reunited with longtime friend Stanley Parker, a cook and recipe collector. They plan to host a tasting party and ask the guests to contribute a recipe containing one secret ingredient. But Stanley poops the party by getting murdered en route. During her investigation, Eugenia finds one of Stanley's cookbooks and uncovers a clue that might lead to his killer.

"The Crepes of Wrath"

(New American Library)

By Tamar Myers

No. 9 in the series finds Magdalena Yoder, the 40-ish owner of the PennDutch Inn in Hernia, Pa., looking for the killer of a neighbor. Lizzie Mast, unquestionably the town's worst cook, is the apparent victim of a tainted crepe. The local police chief is too busy running his political campaign, so he asks Magdalena, his sister-in-law, to handle the case. She uncovers the disturbing news that a drug ring has invaded their peaceful little town.

"From the Corner of His Eye"

(Bantam)

By Dean Koontz

Jan. 6, 1965, is quite an eventful day in this thriller. Bartholomew Lampion is born in California, after his father is killed in a traffic crash on the way to the hospital.

In Oregon, Junior has ruthlessly thrown his wife down a mountainside. He convinces himself that he has a mortal enemy in someone named Bartholomew and begins searching for him. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a girl is born to a rape victim. The baby's survival is a miracle and she becomes linked to the fates of Bartholomew and Junior.

"Murder Me Now" (Mysterious)

By Annette Meyers

Prohibition-era New York is the setting in this second mystery featuring Greenwich Village poet and sleuth Olivia Brown. When Olivia attends a party in the suburbs, she has an uneasy feeling that goes beyond the obvious marital discord of her hosts, Fordy and Kate Vaude. Then Olivia finds the frozen corpse of their nanny, apparently murdered, hanging from a tree. She investigates with the help of a friend, private eye Harry Melville.

"Death Benefits"

(Random House)

By Thomas Perry

Two people are missing: One is Ellen Snyder, an insurance agent, the other is the impostor to whom she authorized payment of a $12 million death benefit. Investigator Max Stillman shows up at the insurance company's San Francisco office and enlists the aid of John Walker, a data analyst and Ellen's former lover. Stillman takes him on his cross-country search for her, hoping he'll be useful in getting a conviction. But Walker is just as eager to find Ellen and prove her innocence.

"Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" (Carroll & Graf)

By Ed Gorman

It's 1959 in this third outing for Sam McCain, young lawyer, private eye and collector of rock 'n' roll records. Demonstrators in Black River Falls, Iowa, are protesting a visit by Soviet Premier Khrushchev when a local writer with leftist sympathies turns up dead on McCain's doorstep, a bloody hammer and sickle painted on his forehead. Early suspects include two ardent anti-Communists, but they, too, are soon found dead.

Other choices:

-- "A Darkness More Than Night" (Little, Brown) by Michael Connelly. The murder of an actress during sex and the ritualistic murder of a loner are somehow related.

-- "Kingdom of Shadows" (Random House) by Alan Furst. In 1938, an aristocrat is recruited for secret missions to keep Hungary from Hitler's grasp.

-- "Love & Death" (Berkley) edited by Carolyn Hart. Fourteen original stories about crimes of the heart, with contributions by Hart, Ed Gorman, Susan Dunlap, Dorothy Cannell and others.

-- "The Wildcats of Exeter" (St. Martin's) by Edward Marston. In medieval England, a man's murder, presumably from a wildcat attack, complicates a land dispute.

-- "On Night's Shore" (St. Martin's) by Randall Silvis. In 1840s New York, a young man and Edgar Allan Poe join forces to investigate some mysterious deaths.

-- "Cold Water Burning" (Bantam) by John Straley. In Alaska, a woman hires a detective to search for her husband, who recently had been acquitted of murder.

-- "The Monk Who Vanished" (St. Martin's) by Peter Tremayne. In 666, an elderly monk and priceless holy relics disappear overnight from an abbey.